Portland: Dyson Racing race report

No North Rest
PORTLAND, OR July 22, 2006 - A week after enduring 103 degree in the
Utah desert, Dyson Racing traveled to the Pacific Northwest for an
even hotter race weekend at the Portland Grand Prix. Running true heat
endurance, Dyson Racing...

No North Rest

PORTLAND, OR July 22, 2006 - A week after enduring 103 degree in the
Utah desert, Dyson Racing traveled to the Pacific Northwest for an
even hotter race weekend at the Portland Grand Prix. Running true heat
endurance, Dyson Racing finished well today, bettering their Salt Lake
City results with a third-place finish by Chris Dyson and Guy Smith
and a fourth by Butch Leitzinger and James Weaver. Smith led the first
fifty-three laps.

The two Dyson cars swept the front row in qualifying and retained it
at the start. Smith passed Letizinger at the Festival Corners at the
start. "I did not intend to pass Butch, but when it went green, I nailed
it and ended up passing him for the lead," said Smith. The leaders
started lapping traffic by lap seven and a lap later the #1 Audi passed
Leitzinger for second. The remainder of the first stint was Dyson
strong, with Smith stabilizing his lead as he looked after his tires
and Leitzinger stayed on the Audi's tail, never more than four seconds
behind.

As usual, the Festival Curves provided the majority of the drama during
the race. The #7 Porsche and #9 Highcroft Lola came together at the
Curves, bringing out the first yellow. Both Dyson entries came in,
Leizinger staying in the #16 car after a fuel and tire stop and Dyson
getting in the #20 car. When the green fell, Leitzinger went off at turn
two and the #20 car was passed putting them down to third. "The Audi got
a jump and absolutely flew by on the restart," stated Leitzinger. "I
got to the first turn and somebody hit me. I got to the next turn, but
the rear tire deflated and I took a ride through the grass. We came in
and lost three laps fixing body work and checking things over. It was
a shame, the car was running quite well." The #16 car came out sixth
and ran strongly the remainder of the race, with Weaver setting the
second-fastest lap of the race ten minutes from the end.

Dyson had the pace of the Audis the reminder of the race and finished
on the podium with Smith. "It was another encouraging weekend," noted
Dyson. "We are getting better and better with these cars with two
back-to-back strong finishes. But the story this weekend is the team.
Working in extreme heat advisories, they never flagged. They have raced
three of the past four weekends and will have three well-deserved
weekends off before Elkhart."

The next round of the American Le Mans Series will be run at Elkhart
Lake, WI on August 20.